The New Addition to Our Apartment

At long last we were able to get an air conditioner! Russell had planned to tough it through the summer as best he could and just buy fans - but we were cautioned by just about everyone that such an idea was folly. Russell was pretty much convinced that we needed an air conditioner (I was ready to get one long ago) and the stern lecture from my boss that we should buy one now because it would take months to get installed once it started to get hot tipped the scale. We went shopping.

Now, we had briefly looked before, but frankly, choosing an air conditioner seemed to be akin to choosing a fine wine. There were a million different options in a million different price ranges and there was no clear way to tell them apart - though like wine, I was definitely more drawn to those with cute animals on the label. We went home and did some research. Russell found a good website that explained what to look for and what all of the numbers meant. We also took pictures of the space where the air conditioner would go and anything else that seemed pertinent. Armed with this knowledge, we set off to the electronics store.

We chose the electronics store that was across from my dermatologist because unlike other electronics stores we had been to, one of the clerks at Joshin really went out of his way to work with us. He wasn't intimidated at all to walk us through his sales pitches, and he carefully examined our pictures and drew a mock-up of our room before telling us that there was really only one model for us. Since it wasn't the most expensive model, we pretty much just went along with him. After a little more research and a few repeat visits to the model he recommended, we ended up buying it. It was installed maybe two days later and is just about as slick a gadget as I have yet come across. It has a remote control to rival any TV, it doubles as a heater, and it totally unfolds like a transformer when you start it up. Fascinating!

Russell was at home for the installation (yes, we decided to let the professionals take this one on, since we had even less of an idea of what to do than we usually do at home.) Russell reported that we made the right choice. It involved a great deal of wiring, bundling, wall mounting, puttying and compressor priming. We happily paid the extra $200 and haven't regretted it. The weather is not quite hot enough to warrant using the air conditioner yet, but the temperatures are definitely rising. Once the humidity catches up in July I have no intention of turning our new friend off.